Starting a thread to talk about fiction books that we read (Odd that we have threads for so many other things, but not books themselves).
I like listening to audiobooks when I jog/run in the mornings. Stumbled across,
"The Ritualist" by Dakota Krout (The Completionist Chronicles Book 1)
Am not sure what I was expecting when I picked this up. Or a better statement would be that I have no idea why I continued to listen/read. Probably a stubbornness about having paid for the thing - after that initial hurdle, the world sucked me in so much that I listened/read the rest of the series. My verdict is that this is a nice time-pass novel. In some ways you can compare it to a japanese isekai novel. Some "things" happen in the real world, our protagonist goes to a virtual world, meets a "hidden" god, gets special powers and is able to make the new world a better place.
While I won't call the protagonist a Mary Sue (or Marty Sue) character - he does come close. The good news is that he does not solve every problem he encounters immediately. The counter-point is that issues (except the over-arching plot) does get resolved within a few chapters. Which makes this a nice book to just pick up, read a bit, put down, forget things and pick up again. It's not for everyone - but I was in a mood and it worked for me when I read it.
I really liked the virutal-world building. What I did not like were the real-world segways. There is a really strange (and odd) reference to Elon Musk, the protagonist's military career, divorce and medical condition in the first 3 or 6 chapters that turned me off. As in - they really turned me off. I stopped listening for some days before picking the book up again. They do not add anything significant to the plot besides explaining how our protagonist got into the game-world.
"Regicide" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 2)
Thankfully, the real-world building is not needed here. Protagonist is already in the virtual world and we don't need all that fluff. A *much* more enjoyable book than the first one. On one level, this concludes a big plot-line (or "quest") which started in the first book. Our Main Character (MC) gets more powerful, has issues to deal with, and all-in-all things smooth out alright. There *is* a world-breaking thing which happens at the end which isn't explained in this book, but rather in the next one (of the mainline series). I liked this book. A significant thing which happens in the book is that the MC forms his own party - I liked the banter between the members.
"Rexus: Side Quest" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 3)
The first side-quest book, focusing on one of the members of our MC's party. This was fun read - but I felt it was distracting. In the sense that I was now reading the story about this Isekai-ed fellow in a virtual world doing things and was interested to know more about the larger plot. This book? Just puts all that aside and focuses on a single party member who decides to go on his merry way doing his own thing and having fun. And I must say - this *is* a fun book. Not what I expected, but it was entertaining.
"Raze" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 4)
We come back to our MC, who now needs to do stuff to help his guild. I *think* this is the book where the "real" world gets destroyed. Now, that should be a "spoiler" but if you are reading this series, I doubt if you care about what's happening on earth. Good riddance, I say. I came here for a game-world and its a nice thing that the other world is gone. Why did it happen? Personally, I don't care and hope it will be hand-waved or something.
Speaking of hand-waving, you would need to put up with that in this book. After the events of the second book, it *should* be obvious that our MC is a Significant Person Of Interest in the game-world. It's just bizarre to see other factions or guilds treating him as if he's not so great. Ignoring that, the book's good. Our MC faces some real challenges in here - which he handily resolves and by the end, becomes a well-known figure.
"Ruthless" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)
This is the last book in the series that I got my hands on. At least, more have not yet been published. After the events in book 2 and 4, there is a general understanding that another world/realm exists out there. At the end of this book, our MC gets sent there. What happens during the book? Well, remember all the folks he "defeated" in the earlier books? They kind-of gang up and try to take him out. And he responds in a very fitting, but extreme manner. The title of the book is called "Ruthless" for a reason. The conclusion of the book has me upset. There's a judgement which happens and I'm left wondering if the human kingdom is two-dimensional. Then again, this *is* supposed to be a game world.
Conclusion: I will recommend this as a nice book to check out from a library. It's an o-kay timepass. In one sentence? "Isekai transported into game-world". You'll either enjoy it or hate it. Me? There are times when I do not want to read a heavy book and want something light-hearted. This fit the bill.
After reading/listening to all these books, I got sucked into LitRPG books. Will write some impressions of them later - this post is big enough.
-chronodekar
I like listening to audiobooks when I jog/run in the mornings. Stumbled across,
"The Ritualist" by Dakota Krout (The Completionist Chronicles Book 1)
Am not sure what I was expecting when I picked this up. Or a better statement would be that I have no idea why I continued to listen/read. Probably a stubbornness about having paid for the thing - after that initial hurdle, the world sucked me in so much that I listened/read the rest of the series. My verdict is that this is a nice time-pass novel. In some ways you can compare it to a japanese isekai novel. Some "things" happen in the real world, our protagonist goes to a virtual world, meets a "hidden" god, gets special powers and is able to make the new world a better place.
While I won't call the protagonist a Mary Sue (or Marty Sue) character - he does come close. The good news is that he does not solve every problem he encounters immediately. The counter-point is that issues (except the over-arching plot) does get resolved within a few chapters. Which makes this a nice book to just pick up, read a bit, put down, forget things and pick up again. It's not for everyone - but I was in a mood and it worked for me when I read it.
I really liked the virutal-world building. What I did not like were the real-world segways. There is a really strange (and odd) reference to Elon Musk, the protagonist's military career, divorce and medical condition in the first 3 or 6 chapters that turned me off. As in - they really turned me off. I stopped listening for some days before picking the book up again. They do not add anything significant to the plot besides explaining how our protagonist got into the game-world.
"Regicide" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 2)
Thankfully, the real-world building is not needed here. Protagonist is already in the virtual world and we don't need all that fluff. A *much* more enjoyable book than the first one. On one level, this concludes a big plot-line (or "quest") which started in the first book. Our Main Character (MC) gets more powerful, has issues to deal with, and all-in-all things smooth out alright. There *is* a world-breaking thing which happens at the end which isn't explained in this book, but rather in the next one (of the mainline series). I liked this book. A significant thing which happens in the book is that the MC forms his own party - I liked the banter between the members.
"Rexus: Side Quest" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 3)
The first side-quest book, focusing on one of the members of our MC's party. This was fun read - but I felt it was distracting. In the sense that I was now reading the story about this Isekai-ed fellow in a virtual world doing things and was interested to know more about the larger plot. This book? Just puts all that aside and focuses on a single party member who decides to go on his merry way doing his own thing and having fun. And I must say - this *is* a fun book. Not what I expected, but it was entertaining.
"Raze" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 4)
We come back to our MC, who now needs to do stuff to help his guild. I *think* this is the book where the "real" world gets destroyed. Now, that should be a "spoiler" but if you are reading this series, I doubt if you care about what's happening on earth. Good riddance, I say. I came here for a game-world and its a nice thing that the other world is gone. Why did it happen? Personally, I don't care and hope it will be hand-waved or something.
Speaking of hand-waving, you would need to put up with that in this book. After the events of the second book, it *should* be obvious that our MC is a Significant Person Of Interest in the game-world. It's just bizarre to see other factions or guilds treating him as if he's not so great. Ignoring that, the book's good. Our MC faces some real challenges in here - which he handily resolves and by the end, becomes a well-known figure.
"Ruthless" (The Completionist Chronicles Book 5)
This is the last book in the series that I got my hands on. At least, more have not yet been published. After the events in book 2 and 4, there is a general understanding that another world/realm exists out there. At the end of this book, our MC gets sent there. What happens during the book? Well, remember all the folks he "defeated" in the earlier books? They kind-of gang up and try to take him out. And he responds in a very fitting, but extreme manner. The title of the book is called "Ruthless" for a reason. The conclusion of the book has me upset. There's a judgement which happens and I'm left wondering if the human kingdom is two-dimensional. Then again, this *is* supposed to be a game world.
Conclusion: I will recommend this as a nice book to check out from a library. It's an o-kay timepass. In one sentence? "Isekai transported into game-world". You'll either enjoy it or hate it. Me? There are times when I do not want to read a heavy book and want something light-hearted. This fit the bill.
After reading/listening to all these books, I got sucked into LitRPG books. Will write some impressions of them later - this post is big enough.
-chronodekar
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